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Shakespeare…who’s he?

A TEMPEST could be brewing in Weymouth and Portland after a national survey revealed that 30 per cent of children under 13 didn’t know who Shakespeare was.

The much ado about something may not be as you like it for scholars but, measure for measure, it perhaps hints that schools may be facing a comedy of errors in the way they try to make sure that the Great Bard makes a memorable impression with pupils.

Shakespeare appears to be a bit of a midsummer night’s dream for some youngsters and the figures seem to show that teachers have a lot of ground to reclaim before they can say that all’s well that ends well.

And all you adults shouldn’t be getting too cocky either since more than a quarter of us said we’d never read one of his plays while an incredible 12 per cent didn’t know Shakespeare was British….and it gets worse.

Apparently five per cent of people aged 18-34 thought that Shakespeare’s most famous play was Cinderella while two per cent actually thought he was fictional!

I’m sure that Weymouth and Portland’s teachers have done a good job and our youngsters are not representative of the survey, but it is still a bit of a winter’s tale for education.